Incubator Community of Practice - outcomes and next session

We had our first conversation as an Australian Incubator Community of Practice this week, with over 70 signing up in the first week with interest from around the world and 22 joining on the day.

For background to the Community of Practice concept, you can check out the original post here.

You can watch a video recording of the session here.

First meeting recap

Introductions

We opened with a round of introductions. Here is a breakdown of those interested in the CoP:

By role

• Incubator (hub, precinct, space) - 31%
• Service provider / consultant - 18%
• University / Research - 17%
• Government - 11%
• Industry / Corporate - 8%
• Community organisation - 8%
• Investor - 4%

By region

• QLD 38%
• NSW 20%
• VIC 14%
• International 8%
• Australia 8%
• WA 6%
• TAS 1%
• SA 1%

As the CoP grows, I expect will use small groups for the introductions to both build community and allow for more people to share in the short time we have for the meetings.

Flexible Workspace Australia Report

Each meeting we will highlight a relevant report and possibly bring in the report author where possible.

This week we had a chat with Kate Dezarnaulds from Flexible Workspace Australia about the recent report on the state of flexible workspace in Australia. When asked about what surprised her most about the report, Kate shared her views:

"The thing that surprised me the most is the level of need and gratitude from operators in the sector for honesty, transparency, disclosure, and shared benchmarks to describe how the sector is performing. There is a big gap between the 'fake it till you make it' narrative and selling future visions and the gulf that creates in trust and credibility when you are trying to demonstrate the performance of different models and seek support.

I thought it would be a difficult conversation in our interest. Occupancy levels, profitability, investment models, pricing models - all of these are measures that we need to confidently agree on the metrics and begin to trust that we are as a collective working in a space that is increasing at a rapid enough space that we can lift the skirts on our own operations. It was a surprise that that was not such a hard sell." - ?Kate Dezarnaulds?

An overview of incubator definitions and models

I shared insights from various research and insights from my PhD research on the contribution of innovation hubs on resilience with a focus on regional and periphery communities. Areas covered include:

• Defining an incubator based on functions of duration, size, target participants, support provided, and number of brands;
• Functions in an incubator as Core; Internal; External influence; and External concern;
• Resourcing in an incubator based on an analysis of daily time sheets and percentage of role allocations;
• Costs and revenue percentages in an incubator;
• Incubator budgets and understanding how to position the gap;
• Incubator funding models and the five sources and their value propositions;
• The growth of incubators in Australia from 2000; and
• Open and closure rates over the past ten years.

Global Entrepreneurship Congress Incubator Challenge Statements

We mentioned the 2023 Melbourne Global Entrepreneurship Congress 19-22 September and the challenge application which includes challenges for incubators. These challenges include:

• Improve incubator quality, specialisation, and connections: Improve incubator service delivery quality, financial sustainability, sector and technology specialisation focus, global connectivity, and value for funders
• Inclusive incubation: Availability of quality incubation support across regions and demographics, including female, indigenous, rural, and youth entrepreneurship
• Measure Incubator impact: Understand, measure, and share the economic, community, and individual impact of incubators including accelerator programs, shared spaces, and precincts.?

You can sign up and add your ideas and examples to these challenges at https://genaustralia.nectir.co/.

Open conversation

We closed with an open conversation that touched on:

• the need for definitions and clarity including mapping for incubators, startups, stages, and ecosystem maturity;
• the current Queensland grant; the shift of funding for research translation; and
• the value of technology parks.

Next steps and next meeting

We are developing this community of practice because we believe in the value of building capacity and capability in the Australian incubation services. What this looks like will develop based on the needs and feedback from the community.

If this sounds like something where you can both add and gain value, you can join our next conversation on Friday, 1 September 2023 from 2 to 3pm.